Great List of Podcast Players ~ Podcatcher Apps

I listen to podcasts on my phone, using Apple’s native Podcasts app. It works. And, like so much tech, my eyes wander, and I wonder if there’s something…sexier…with a better user interface…that allows different speeds…more playlists. First world lusts.

If you’re just getting started on podcasts, my recommendation is:

Find the native app that goes with your phone, whether Apple or Android.

Download it to your device.

Find an article that helps you learn how to download podcasts to the app. This Digital Trends article may help. Or go to my Help page for other guidance links.

(* BTW, can we settle on what we're calling these listening-device apps?)

The List

Jones kicks off with the stand-by Apple Podcasts app, followed by Overcast, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Acast and Podbean Podcast, all with one sentence descriptions.

He then dips down to another level, with apps like Otto Radio, Stabl, Listen Notes, Podly, RadioPublic (I like them) and many more. As he puts it, “these are the next generation that are trying something a little different.”

Just when I think he’s done, he delivers up information about other categories of listening-systems, including large tech companies like Audible and Spotify, and off-the-phone, web-based options like Soundcloud, YouTube, Patreon, Tunein and a long list of other options, including NPR One and BBC iPlayer Radio. It’s exhaustive. And, as he notes near the end of his article, “Hold on, I think another app just launched.”

Per Jones, “View this as your handy cheat sheet for catching up on the explosion of different ways to get audio into your brain.”

If someone in the 70’s had been asked what device they watched television on, they’d say, “my TV.” Now TV is watched on a variety of devices, even though it’s still called, well, TV.

Podcasts may have had a smaller window where they were mainly listened to on Apple’s iPod. It doesn’t matter. Like TV, podcasts can now be listened to on a variety of devices.